Friday Night Beer Summit

October 1, 2010 Leave a comment

I’ve decided that a Friday night beer summit must be held in order to reconcile the great divides developing in our Great Society. I will invite the following people:

The Un-Right Reverends:
Jesse Jackson
Al Sharpton
Jeremiah Wright

The Absent-Minded Professor:
Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The Oedipal Mocker:
Bill Maher

The Uber Radical:
William Ayers

The Potty-Mouth:
Rahm Emmanuel

The Divine Ms. O:
Oprah Winfrey

The Appeaser:
Colin Powell

The Plumber:
Joe

The Voice in the Wilderness
Glenn Beck

The North Star:
Sarah Palin

The Pulitzer Prize Winner:
Charles Krauthammer

The Iron Lady, Part 2
Ann Coulter

The Economist:
Dr. Walter E. Williams

The Juris Doctor:
Mrs. Virginia Lamp Thomas

Don’t worry. I will be there to moderate. (I won’t be wearing a tie, though. My sleeves will be rolled up.) Miller High Life beer and soft pretzels will be served. (Hard pretzels may end up hurting someone in the event of a melee.)

The Venue: We will meet in the front yard of my apartment building. (I live in a building that houses Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, an Englishman and a welfare conditioned alcoholic.)
There will be name tags.

The summit will begin with an icebreaker: everyone will tell their names, their backgrounds and say one thing about them that we don’t know. They will also tell us their favorite flavor of ice cream.

After intros, we will play Uno at four card tables (no race cards will be allowed!) Once a winner is decided at each table I will re-divide the group into new foursomes for Twister. After playing Twister, a rousing game of charades will be played based on Charles Dicken’s characters. The winning team members will each receive a signed copy of the US Constitution.

As the evening winds down, the guests will be treated to a reading of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” while Yanni plays in the background.

Let the Friday Night Smack Down begin

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King Care

September 29, 2010 Leave a comment

(A One Act Play)

[King Care is in his throne room with the Duchess of House Pelosi, the Earl of Senate Reed and Courtier Rahm]

King Care:
“Duchess of House Pelosi, tell me how much you love me.”

Duchess of House Pelosi:
“King Care, your teleprompter words are golden.”

King Care:
“Earl of Senate Reed, tell me how much you love me”

Earl of Senate Reed:
“Your Majesty, future generations will be forever indebted to you.”

King Care (to himself):
“Taxpayer, taxpayer, wherefore art thou taxpayer?”

[Taxpayer Goneril, Taxpayer Regan and Taxpayer Cordelia enter]

King Care:
“Taxpayer Goneril, tell me how much you love me.”

Taxpayer Goneril:
“Thou dost complete me, Your Majesty.”

King Care:
“Taxpayer Regan, tell me how much you love me.”

Taxpayer Regan:
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for your health coverage today.”

King Care:
“Taxpayer Cordelia, tell me how much you love me.”

Taxpayer Cordelia:
“I would rather not say my lord King.”
“To be covered or not to be covered that is a taxing question, my lord.”

King Care:
“And you Fool, what say you?”

Fool:
“If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten for being old before thy time”

King Care (to Himself):
“Now I see. I will divide my time between my loyal taxpayers Goneril and Regan. I will visit the backyard barbeque of Taxpayer Goneril for a while and then I will go the backyard barbeque of Taxpayer Regan. I will bring with me the Knights of MSNBC.
“Cordelia, O Taxpayer Cordelia. How can she not tell me of her love for me? I know. I’ll banish Cordelia to Europe. Maybe she will learn to love my socialist ways.
[To Cordelia]: “Be gone, Cordelia.”

Earl of Senate Reed:
“Your Majesty, the Duchess of House Pelosi and I must take our leave and return to our homes. The people at home are uprising.”

King Care:
“Take your leave. Godspeed Earl of Senate Reed and Duchess of House Pelosi. Quench the uprisings before any more damage is done to my kingdom.

King Care [To Himself]:
“Can I be going progressively mad? Where is my golf bag? Courtier Rahm, what time do we tee?”

Courtier Rahm:
“Your Majesty, tee time is any time you wish.”
[Courtier Rahm bows low]
“Your Majesty, if I may, I must take leave to return to my home town by the Lake of Michigan. The f—ing public needs my damm good presence.”

King Care [lighting up]:
“Well then take your leave Courtier Rahm. Remind the Taxpayers in that great town of my words to them: “Yes, we can…””
[To Himself]:
“…at any cost.”

Courtier Rahm:
[bowing]
“Yes, of course, Your Majesty. I’m f—ing otta here.”
[Courtier Rahm leaves]

King Care:
[To Taxpayer Goneril and Taxpayer Regan]
“Come along my adoring Taxpayers Goneril and Regan. We will talk about taxes when Earl of Senate Reed and Duchess of House Pelosi return from their campaigns. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we may die.”

The End.

Filed under Current Events 2010, Politics Tagged with , , ,

A Few Good Men

September 26, 2010 Leave a comment

Sunday, September 26, 2010: The Chicago Tribune column by John Kass

John Kass meets the Rev. Isaac Hayes for breakfast. Hayes is Jesse Jackson Jr.’s Opponent in the race for the U.S. house.

John Kass writes: “We sat down for breakfast late last week at the Billy Goat. And if Jackson wants to sit down with me for a tasty Spiros Special breakfast sandwich and talk-without lawyers and spinners-he’s welcome.
I asked Hayes: How difficult is it being an African America conservative in a district where the Jackson family machine is so dominant?
“It’s difficult if you’re not willing to speak up about what you believe,” Hayes said. “If you’re weak, you wouldn’t want to do it. It’s my opinion that black conservatives have to have strong character. The easy smear is when you’re called a traitor to your race. That happens a lot.
But look at what’s happened to the black community over the decades. Look at the family. Look at the lack of economic opportunity,” he said. “These problems are in part because of liberal Democrats policies. But people like me get smeared as race traitors for not being liberal Democrats? That’s ironic. But that’s not why the media is interested in me.”
John Kass: Reporters are now interested in Hayes because Jackson-a child of privilege who has always been about as deep as a teaspoon-has been weakened.” …
(The column goes on to say that Jackson is weakened on two fronts: the corruption front and the blond front.)
John Kass: “It started with social issues,” he (Hayes) said of his conversion to conservatism. “I’m pro-life, and I believe marriage should be between one man and one woman. But as you think in terms of family, and what weakens it, you start thinking in terms of economic and education policy.” Hayes argues for education vouchers to free children trapped in dysfunctional inner-city schools and tax cuts to stimulate jobs. Clearly, such talks threaten big government Democrats whose power depends on keeping low-income Africa Americans as dependent clients.
”You ask how I became conservative?” Hayes said, “You minister to a 14- year old boy in jail, and he’s telling you that he has to get out so he can take care of his child. We’ve got to fundamentally change what’s going on in the cities. And it starts when African-Americans stop giving away their votes.”

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A Serious Woman

September 18, 2010 Leave a comment

Sat. morning: After grabbing some black coffee at Caribou I drove over to the local Toyota dealer for a scheduled oil change. As you know, a simple car maintenance scope can exponentially grow into a thousand dollar tab in a flash (or a clunk). That is exactly what happened today. After an hour-and-a-half of reading my Shakespeare book, the Toyota service man who works the counter comes over to me. He explains to me that “You need a lot of work done”. (Tell me something I don’t know, please!).

Besides the regular oil change, I needed the transmission fluid purged from my system. I also needed my front brakes and rotors replaced (I tried not to take this personally!) and my FOP needed a battery (it’s not what it used to be!).

A thousand dollars later (actually it was $889.56, but in the car repair customer end of the business I always round up to the nearest thousand dollars to allow for “unforeseen problems”) I had had breakfast at Panera, browsed at a closing Blockbuster ($2.99 pre-used movies!), had lunch at a local Greek owned restaurant called Corfu, I had walked past three strip malls looking like a bag lady and then I finally paid my way back behind the wheel of my newly anointed Toyota Corolla Sport. It was 2:00 pm, I was tired. Car repair cost had been draining my thoughts.

I drove over to Barnes and Noble (a second home). There I picked up a copy of St. Matthew’s Passion (only the highlights.  The three-hour plus version would be the cost of an pre-augmented oil change.). Back in the car, I dug through the multi-secure layers of plastic packaging enclosing Bach’s mind un-boggling sounds. Finally, finally, I was immersed in the immaculate music. Finally, my mind’s emergency brake released. The dissonance of the morning resolved into a major mode afternoon.

$2.99 movies: With great consumer élan (as much as I could muster), I purchased a few movies at the closing Blockbuster. There was not much of a selection but I did find some films which would pique my interest: A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen, Klimit (Gustav Klimt, an Austrian Symbolist painter,) starring John Malkovich, Red Belt written and directed by David Mamet and Shakespeare In Love (winner of 7 academy awards including Best Picture).

Sat. evening: After dinner at a local Spanish restaurant, destined to become ethereal as I lay on the couch watching $2.99 movies with one eye open.

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First Lady Swap

September 18, 2010 Leave a comment

From ABC.com: “Families are swapping wives right now for a whole new season of Wife Swap on ABC.”

Here is a wife swap I’d like to see: Michelle Obama with Sarah Palin!

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Citizen Czar

September 17, 2010 1 Comment

Recently Obama appointed Elizabeth Warren as a special advisor to oversee the newly created highly powerful consumer financial protection bureau. In doing so Obama bypasses Congress, our elected representatives. He is able to do this because the position is called “advisory” and it is not the directorship of the bureau. Like the appointment of the other Obama’s Czars, Obama’s sidestepping of Congress tells me that Ms. Warren will represent Obama’s interests and not the consumer’s interest. She is given this position in order to protect Obama politically. She will use hand slapping and the handicapping of Wall Street in order to make Obama look good. She is a frequent critic of Wall Street. We need someone to protect us from Obama’s appointees

In lieu of corrupt representation, it is high time that We the People appoint someone who represents us: a Citizen Czar. There needs to be someone who represents the Constitution and its intent of liberty for all (not government takes all).

The Citizen Czar would act to:

Restrict government encroachment for the sake of the People;

Restrain taxation for the sake of the people;

Promote natural marriage and healthy family relationships for the sake of the people;

Promote what is good, honest, just and honorable. Promote liberty with discipline. For the people.

Defend the non-politician from a politician’s BS. Citizen Czar will fine liars.

Distribute copies of the Constitution to every legal citizen;

Protect citizens from executive office appointed Czars, including the protection of our children from Safe-Schools Czar Kevin Jennings.

Ensure the display of the American flag in every classroom.

Ensure that the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag is said every morning in the classroom.

Promote charter and private schools and disassemble public education and the Department of Education.

Protect the ‘yet-to-be born’ American citizen from destruction.

Encourage, foster and present public forum debates on public issues.

Stop the redistribution of wealth; Support small business and entrepreneurship.

Work to see men honored and to see women loved.

Promote civility, citizenship and character (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) for We the People.

…this is big task for any one person. I suggest a Citizen Czar and a Citizen Czarina, a husband and wife team.

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Smart Money Talks, Greed Walks

September 16, 2010 Leave a comment

Milton Friedman, an American economist and Nobel Prize Winner, talks about greed.

The redistribution of wealth touted by Obama and progressives is actually a government distribution of the greed and envy that some people hold towards others who they consider are better off.

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White House, Black Thoughts

September 16, 2010 Leave a comment

It’s time for some house cleaning! It’s time for them to get the hell out!

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Stolen Goods

September 15, 2010 Leave a comment

The American economist and academic, Walter Williams, talks about redistribution of wealth:

“A right, such as a right to free speech, imposes no obligation on another, except that of non-interference. The so-called right to health care, food or housing, whether a person can afford it or not, is something entirely different; it does impose an obligation on another. If one person has a right to something he didn’t produce, simultaneously and of necessity it means that some other person does not have right to something he did produce. That’s because, since there’s no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy, in order for government to give one American a dollar, it must, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American.”

“No human should be coerced by the state to bear the medical expense, or any other expense, for his fellow man. In other words, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another is morally offensive.”

“For the most part, income is a result of one’s productivity and the value that people place on that productivity.”

“One of the wonderful things about free markets is that the path to greater wealth comes not from looting, plundering and enslaving one’s fellow man, as it has throughout most of human history, but by serving and pleasing him.”

“People who denounce the free market and voluntary exchange, and are for control and coercion, believe they have more intelligence and superior wisdom to the masses. What’s more, they believe they’ve been ordained to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. Of course, they have what they consider good reasons for doing so, but every tyrant that has ever existed has had what he believed were good reasons for restricting the liberty of others.”

Filed under Christian character, Christianity, Current Events 2010, Politics Tagged with , , , , ,

This Shall Not Pass

September 14, 2010 Leave a comment

One negative effect of a redistribution of wealth, a class warfare mantra currently voiced by Obama, is that wealth given to someone who has not earned it creates a means for the recipient to disregard the situation that brought the recipient to a place of need.  The factors that created the need may be outside one’s control (becoming a widow or an orphan or a natural disaster) but most likely the factors are based on choices made by the recipient or their forebears.  Having economic need increases the sensitivity to the choices made and can help the person in need make the necessary corrections in their life.

A redistribution of wealth can also blot out the effects of sin passed down from generation to generation.  Being fully present to the context of your life can bring about an understanding of one’s spiritual poverty and then, perhaps, to a place of redemption and spiritual reward. A redistribution of wealth can numb the recipient to a needed spiritual ‘goading’. Because of this and many other substantial moral reasons (e.g., “Thou shall not steal.”), redistribution of wealth is not an ideal economic policy for humanity. Everyone wants to avoid pain but it is pain which redistributes a wealth of information to the bearer.

The founding fathers never envisioned this type of economic policy, economic policy which is punitive to some and palliative to others.  Equal opportunity is the baseline premise of our country, not envy and whining.  And. a man’s property is sacred.  Here is what some of the founding fathers wrote about redistribution of wealth:

 “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”     John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”   Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816

“A wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”   Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”    Thomas Jefferson

“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.”   Thomas Jefferson

With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”   James Madison in a letter to James Robertson

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”   Benjamin Franklin

“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”   Benjamin Franklin

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”   John Adams

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”   James Madison, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788

Filed under Christianity, Current Events 2010, Politics Tagged with , ,

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